•56 



IRLSH GARDENING- 



A Fine Hardy Arum 



(Lysichiton kamtschatcense). 



Still rare in our gardens, this splendid Aroid is 

 conijjaratively common as a native of many parts 

 of British Cohunbia and, I believe, Japan. It is 

 a bog-plant, allied to the "Skimk Cabbage" {Hym- 

 ithjcarpus fotithts), but without the latter's 

 stench. Indeed, it seems hardly just to associate 

 it with that unsavoury species, for Lysichiton is 

 a noble and beautiful plant, sending up from its 

 almost leafless base in spring a large and ele- 

 gantly-formed spathe in a real Caltha yellow. 

 This striking, almost stemless, blossom "is fol- 

 lowed by the luscious, tropical-looking foliage 

 consisting of rounded, fleshy leaves of a peculiar 

 glaucous green. Though a bog-plant, this subject 

 is not fastidious, and will prosper iii^ any rich, 

 cool loam provided its roots can reach water or 

 wet soil. It has been giown successfully in a;; 

 ordinary liorder over a deeply-laid bed of peat, 

 t'lay, and old cow manure with a vertical field 

 drain pipe set in near by to be filled up with 

 water occasionally during spring and earlj 

 sunnner. 



A. T. ,J. 



Wallflowers 



The Sweetest Flowers of Spring. 



"Wallflowkrs need no recommendation, as to 

 thousands of people they have a charm, and their 

 fragrance is such that no garden, however small, 

 where spring blossoms are catered for, can be 

 regarded as quite complete without some of them. 

 We may be disposed — on the score of economy, 

 perhaps — to restrict our purchases of bulbs for 

 spring flowering, but the trifling cost of seed of 

 a collection of Wallflowers will not admit of .any 

 reduction so far as they are concerned. 



We say. then, as others are telling themselves, 

 " we must sow seeds of Wallflowers," for surely 

 they are the sweetest flowers of spring. We know 

 how simple are their requirements — jiist to sow 

 the seeds in groimd well dug, in a situation open 

 and sunny, in soil free of any manure, and to 

 prick them out with what space we can give each 

 plant, getting them into their final quarters in 

 autumn, lifting every plant with a ball of soil, so 

 as to ensure as little root disturbance as possible. 

 When is the best time to sow seed of Wall- 

 flowers — May, Jinie, or, as some do, in July? 

 What has experience taught us in the many years 

 we have grown them? That July is soon enough? 

 Becidedly not ! We rather believe in the method 

 we have long practised, that the ending of the 

 blooming season with these old-time flowers, 

 which is May, should also be the season when 

 seed ought to be sown, certainly no later than 

 the middle of June. What a heritage, too, we 

 .have in present-day varieties in comparison to 

 those our forefathers knew — the old blood-red and 

 yellow Oastle, not always true to colour ! 



Now we have them in delightful shades of 

 ■orange, and rose purple and ruliy, lemon and 

 apricot, brown and primrose, a perfect ganuit of 

 colour, and as delightful in fragrance as they are 

 beautiful. 



Thinking of them, and anticipating their loveli- 

 ness this year, we resolved that, come what may. 

 we must not forget to sow Wallflowers for 

 another season. 



W. [nNDERS TiE.4. 



Stocks for Winter and Spring 

 Blooming. 



For cold giecnhouscs, or ni houses where very 

 little heat can l)e given, winter and early spring 

 does not always find much bloom in evidence. In 

 sucli circumstances it is well to consider what 

 may be grown in sunnner with a view to flower- 

 ing in the dark days of the year. It has long 

 been somewhat of a puzzle to me why people who 

 have greenhouses, and raise every" spring Ten 

 Week Stocks from seed, should lose "sight of stocks 

 that come to their beauty stage in late autvunn 

 and winter if provision "is made to give them 

 house accommodation and just a suggestion of 

 warmth, for they practically need no more to 

 secure their free flowering, fragrant spikes. We 

 have several secticms of stocks to-day which may 

 l)e sown in June in light soil -in a cold frame or 

 on a sunny border, among.st v\^eh may be men- 

 tioned, for winter flowering, Heiiufi/ of Xice. and 

 for spring blooming, the East Lothian. In these 

 two sections alone we may have a variety of colour 

 from purest white, pale yellow, rose, and mauve 

 and crimson, and the perfume emitted at the time 

 of flowering is most sweet. 



Sowing and Growing. — May I suggest to 

 readers who have looked upon stocks solely in the 

 light of garden blossoms to consider them from 

 the standpoint of winter flowers for the green- 

 house. ^ If they will but do this and sow the seed 

 as advised, afterwards potting them on until a 

 six-inch sized pot is reached, they will have a 

 reward, when many other flowers are gone, in 

 magnificent and sweetly-scented spikes. These 

 stocks can, of course, be pricked out in beds in 

 the garden and grown there until autumn, when 

 they may be lifted and potted, but it is never a 

 very satisfactory i^rocedure, often resulting in 

 flagging of foliage and, for a time, retarding 

 growth and delaying of opening of flower buds. 

 The better plan is to pot them on when large 

 enough into six-inch pots from the bed where 

 they have been pricked off, using good friable 

 loam, leaf-mould, or spent hops and rotted 

 manure. In this compost the plants will thrive, 

 and need very little by way of stimulants for 

 months, when a pinch of guano or Clay's fertiliser 

 will improve them. 



MiNiJiisiNG W.ATERiNG. — To Save trouble in 

 carrying water during summer, stocks, after re- 

 ceiving their final potting, may be partly sub- 

 mergecl in soil or ashes in a sunny position, for 

 there is no need to burden a frame with them at 

 all, as in October they can be removed direct to 

 the greenhouse. 



The long ])eriod in which winter and spring 

 flowering stocks remain in bloom should in itself 

 be an inducement for folks who have greenhouses 

 to include a few of them at any rate in their 

 arrangements, but, strange to say, whilst the pro- 

 fessional gardener realises their worth, the 

 average man with his little house, for .some 

 reason not easily understood, leaves these delight- 

 ful fragrance-bearers rigidly alone ! 



Is not this very remarkable considering how 

 very easily they may be reared and grown, and 

 with so little expense ? 



Mercaston. 



Poison Berries 



Glasgow Corporation city fathers came down 

 heavilv in the Court of Session, and have 



